某種物質的愛

by Cheon Seon-ran, 千先蘭, 胡椒筒 (Translator)

【越嚮往宇宙的浩瀚，越要低頭凝視身處的世界、記住身邊的人。】

時而溫暖動人、時而可愛俏皮、時而諷刺或驚悚，千先蘭的寫作風格一如變幻無常的宇宙，引領我們進入她描繪的一個個「近未來」，藉以對現實有更深刻的體悟，也忍不住勾勒對未來的美好想像。

千先蘭在寫小說時，喜歡以「情感」作為開端，這8篇小說便是以深藏在她心中的憤怒、悲傷與孤獨為起點，寫下她心中最柔軟、有關父母的生命故事，擔憂瀕危的地球生態、日益嚴重的性別對立，更關心與她相同年輕世代的人生困境。就像是創造出了某種不知為何的物質，帶領我們跨越宇宙，重新連結起人與人之間的情感，那稱之為「愛」。

▎不存在於過去與未來的母親，只記得她從沒去過的沙漠，讓我也開始好奇那裡的風景。

▎通過重重考驗才獲得當「父親」的資格，看著那顆米粒般的胚胎，我真的準備好為他犧牲一切了嗎？

▎探測外星球發現的未知生命體，和死去的女兒一樣有著六根手指。它說，我一直在等妳。

▎在我發現自己沒有肚臍的那一天，媽媽才告訴我，我的性別會根據喜歡上的人而變成相同性別？！

▎20年前去宇宙出任務的好友突然回來了，讓大腦失去共感能力的我，感受到陌生又熟悉的振動。

▎男人因外星物體出現而變異，像喪屍般攻擊女人。沒人知道原因，只有「她」能聽見他們溝通的聲音。

▎進入黑洞的人都沒有回來，但她想起了暗無天日的考試院，覺得進入那個黑洞才是她唯一的希望。

▎德米愛上了迪利，唯一願望是能約會一天。問題只在於，它們是將被報廢的測試用機器人。

224 pages, Paperback

First published July 20, 2020

About the author

Born in 1993, Cheon Seon-ran is a beloved author by the ‘MZ Generation’ (Millennials and Gen Z) of South Korea. A graduate from the department of creative writing in Anyang Arts High School, she holds a master’s degree in creative writing from Dankook University. She dreams of living in a world where humans become the minority in a world of flora and fauna. She is always thinking what the end of the world will look like, and what is happening elsewhere in the universe. One day, she decides to pen her thoughts down in this novel. A Thousand Blues won the 4th Korea Sci-fi Literature Award. She is the author of several novels and short-story collections.

Reviews

[seo eun Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Creative. But the writings are not good enough to make
that creativity shine.

[chloe —̳͟͞͞♥ · Rating 3 out of 5]

absolutely loved the eponymous(?) short story, 어떤 물질의 사랑… def deserved to be the representative story :) !! i skimmed through the last 90 or so pages after 두하나 bored the sht out of me. 그림자놀이 and 레시 were alright, pretty realistic prospective dystopian scenarios (레시 lowkey gave me the shape of water vibes) and i appreciated the HUGE amount of queer representation, 역시 천선란!! can’t beat my love for 나인 though, but i’ll give 천 개의 파랑 a read some day too :) overall the first few stories until 어물사 had very difficult language, i struggled with all of the aerospace engineering vocab ☹️

“희망은 절망과 한몸이다. 어느 쪽이 먼저 오든 나머지 하나도 꼭 따라오는 법이다.”

[Memming Park · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of short sci-fi/fantasy themed stories. It reflects the sentiment of the generation younger than me. The subjects and ideas are creative but the stories focus more on emotions than sci-fi elements.

[Renee · Rating 2 out of 5]

What am I looking at? Like? Yeah I got no clue this is too artistic for me I guess I don’t really feel anything reading these short stories

[Jiwoo Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

같이 레시 이야기 하실 분 구합니다…